Two charities have teamed up to secure almost £500,000 of lottery cash so they can help more elderly people in North Staffordshire.

MHA’s Stoke Live At Home and Father Hudson’s Young At Heart have united under the Better Together banner.

The two groups have been working to stop pensioners becoming isolated through offering activities and social work.

After they applied separately for lottery funding and were turned down, they were advised to lodge a joint bid.

Now the Stoke-on-Trent-based Better Together service has received £483,734 from the Big Lottery Fund to support work over the next four years.

Liz Daley, from MHA's Stoke Live at Home, and Matt Ford, from Father Hudson's Young at Heart, celebrate the funding boost

It means they can expand their reach across the whole of the city, as well as Newcastle and the Moorlands.

The groups already hold get-togethers for the elderly, along with talks, trips and home visits. Better Together will also be launching 12 new projects on the back of the funding.

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Matt Ford, project manager for Father Hudson’s Young at Heart, said: “This is massive for us because it means that we can expand and keep providing the service for four more years.

“We are already looking for ways we can expand and how we can keep going after those four years are through.

“We have 150 members and 35 volunteers. The funding will transform the lives of the older people we already support and the lives of many more across Staffordshire that we can now reach.

“The groups, activities, trips out and home visits all mean so much to them I’m very pleased that Father Hudson’s Care is working with MHA and I look forward to developing this partnership with them.”

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Liz Daley, MHA’s Stoke Live at Home scheme manager said: “The number of isolated, older people living alone is growing. For us, this funding means we can pay staff to help us expand and be able to keep going for the next four years.

“The lottery funding will ensure that we can carry on delivering these vital services, which so many older people in the local community depend on. For a lot of our members, our scheme is the only activity they come to all week. We might be the only people they speak with all week.

“Having just celebrated our 25th anniversary, this grant is validation for the great work we have been undertaking in the community over the last couple of decades.”